My Ultimate DE Farming Guide
1. Upgrade Priorities:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...r_Storage6.pnghttp://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...xir_Drill6.png
- You must prioritize upgrading all your 'offensive' units before your 'defensive' units. Laboratory, Spell Factory, Clan Castle, and Army Camps must all be leveled to max as soon as possible.
- Prioritize on upgrading your farming troops and spells in your Laboratory first.
- Upgrade Dark Elixir Storage to level 6. My goal will be to always keep the storage around 90% full before one of my heroes has completed training.
- Upgrade both DE Drills to level 6. A lv 6 DE Drill produces 100 DE per hour. With two, that's 4800 DE per day. In a month that's about 144,000 DE. Sounds great to me!
2. The conditions I follow:
- Keep your Town Hall outside. If you have loads of DE, then keep TH outside so you don't get constantly zapped without a shield. Stay high in the trophy leagues to lessen the rate of zappers.
- http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...rk_elixir.webp Know the value of Dark Elixir. The value of 1 DE = 140 Elixir/Gold or 280 of Gold + Elixir. This is the number I like to work with for a couple of reasons. One plausible reason I could give you is that the cap of how much DE you can raid from a fellow TH 9's DE storage is 2500, while the cap of the Elixir or Gold storage is 350,000. 350,000/2500 = 140. This allows to decide whether it's worth trying to break into the depths of the base for the DE storage if there's enough to interest me. There's always a chance of failure due to unforeseen circumstances especially when using weak army compositions. Thus, you will need to weigh your risk vs reward.
- You don't have to boost barracks, but boosting will help you farm even faster. My method is very gem-friendly. You don't need use gems to make DE fast. Boosting will only increase your performance, nothing bad about it. However, I will not be using any gems in my new journey!
3. Army Compositions:
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...arian_lvl6.jpghttp://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...rcher_lvl6.jpghttp://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...a/Minion_5.pnghttp://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...eaker_lvl5.jpg
- BAM - 2 Barracks Barbarians, 2 Barracks Archers, 1 Barrack each 2 Wall Breakers, 2 Dark Barracks of 8 Minions each. For a total of about 8 Wall Breakers, 16 Minions, and rest Barbarians and Archers. (Unboosted) - Theoretical Training Time For Full Army: 19 minutes and 33 seconds (actual time of completion is much shorter, depending on how long you are nexting as Barracks cook troops while you are searching and raiding).
- Spells: Only cook Heal Spells and 1 Poison Spell
- The Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King are the best weapons for efficient Dark Elixir farming. I highly recommend using them (or one of them) if you're not upgrading both at the same time. (This does not apply to me)
- This is a very efficient method of farming Dark Elixir, quick-to-train army that can break into a few layers to steal DE if needed. Watch my YouTube videos on how I effectively I use this composition.
NEW: LoonBAM attack
Link to guide: http://forum.supercell.net/showthread.php/783237-New-DE-Farming-Attack-Method-LoonBAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUEQsyKUQek
Master League Farming:
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...sterLeague.png
Check out my Ultimate Master League Farming Guide here: http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...-Farming-Guide
Other Viable Compositions:
BAM v2 - 3 rax Archers, 1 rax Barbarians, 4 Wall Breakers, 16 Minions, Lightning Spells (Recommended), Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King (Optional), Factory Boosted (Recommended)
- Much like the above BAM composition, but with more Archers. This will allow you obtain 50% easier, but may be harder to break into cores of bases with enough Barbarians acting as meatshields and mini-wall breakers. And of course you want to Boost your Spell Factory so you can make about 2500 DE in bonus every hour from zapping.
BAM Heal/Rage - 2 rax Barbarians, 2 rax Archers, 4 Wall Breakers, 16 Minions, 1 Rage Spell, 1 Heal Spell, 2-3 Lightning Spells, Archer Queen or Barbarian King (Optional), Factory Boosted (Recommended)
- I recommend not using both Heal and Rage Spells if one is enough. Both Rage and Heal together is very powerful and will make it much easier breaking into bases for DE Storage. The you should also constantly make Lightning Spells for the other slots to constantly zap storages for bonus DE.
Barch Heal/Rage - 2 rax Barbarians, 2 rax Archers, 6 Wall Breakers, 1 Rage Spell, 1 Heal Spell, 2-3 Lightning Spells, Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King (Recommended), Factory Boosted (Recommended)
- This is more for the parsimonious folks whom don't want to spend DE on training Minions. However, I do recommend using a Hero with this composition as a King under Rage Spell with a bunch of Barbarians is a very powerful way of breaking into bases. Heal Spell should be used to fend off splash damages from Mortars of Wizard Towers.
Barch Heal Breaker - 2 rax Barbarians, 2 rax Archers, 16 Wall Breakers, 4-5 Heal Spells, Barracks Boosted (Recommended), Spell Factory Boosted (Recommended), Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King (Recommended)
- This method is more favorable with boosted barracks and factory for efficiency. It also also geared more towards people with high level Heroes, as the Heal Spells will allow your Heroes to maintain good health in combat, so you can expect to have your Heroes assist you in every raid without waiting. The main idea of this composition is set in stone by the over-abundance of Wall Breakers (16 of them). You want to start by sending in a couple of Barbarians and Archers behind them, then constantly send in a pair of Wall Breakers to break inside the core (or wherever the DE Storage is confined). Use Heal Spell to maintain health against splash defenses such as Wizard Towers and Mortars (as they're the number one threat to your army).
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...Giant_lvl7.pngGiBarch - 12-16 Giants, 6-8 Wall Breakers, 3 rax Archers, 1 rax Barbarians, Rage Spell (Recommended), Heal Spell (Optional), Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King (Recommended), Factory and Barracks Boosted (Recommended)
- This composition utilizes Giants, who are great at breaking into bases and taking damage with their incredibly high HP. Although this isn't as efficient as any of the above compositions, it is great for those whom love to boost their barracks and factory. Rage Spell is almost a must with this composition for full potential for breaking into bases. A Hero is also recommended as this composition isn't too friendly with housing space and often you'll run out of enough troops to continue rampaging through defenses and layers of walls.
GiBAM - 8 Giants, 4 Wall Breakers, 16 Minions, 3 rax Archers, 1 rax Barbarians, 1 Rage Spell (Optional), 3-4 Lightning Spells, Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King (Recommended), Factory Boosted (Recommended)
- Similar to GiBarch, but this composition provides you with more versatility and a last resort option in Minions. This is one of the most difficult compositions to master simply because there's a lot of troops involved and the different ways to go about attacking a base with it. I highly recommend that you first master both the BAM and GiBarch methods before attempting this method. The key idea for this method is to break into a base with Giants distracting defenses, use Barbarians for extra meatshield with Archers attacking over walls behind them. Use Minions to quickly remove splash defenses in the way (over walls) and/or attack the DE Storage once you've cleared the path with your GiBarch army.
Balloonion - 28 Balloons, 40-50 Minions, 2 Rage Spells, 2 Heal Spell, Barracks Boosted (Recommended), Factory Boosted (Recommended), Archer Queen and/or Barbarian King (Optional)
- It is recommended that you farm at Masters league with this composition as the league bonus there will make up for much of your loss when it comes to training over 40 Minions. In order to increase time efficiency, boosting your barracks and factory is almost a must. Otherwise, all the above compositions are just greatly superior in terms of both cost efficiency and time efficiency.
4. My Rules of the Hunt:
(For Efficient Dark Elixir Farming)
- Town Hall snipe while waiting for a full army if you're farming high in the trophy leagues and are having a hard time maintaining trophies.
- Always fill up barracks after every raid you expend your troops.
- Your target DE per raid should be at least 1000 DE. 1000 DE * 140 = 140,000. When I farm for gold or elixir, I aim for at least a total of 300,000 per raid. 140,000*2 = 280,000 in theory if there were two DE storages. Thus, 1000 DE is a good number to work with. Especially when you're using such a weak army composition to work with. Sometimes DE farming can be slow, so you can change you target to 800 DE if that's more comfortable. If you were to farm with something more potent like Balloonion, then you probably would want to target at least 1500 DE to make up for time consumption of the army.
- However, in the case of sniping a TH outside a base and there are DE Drills also easily accessible, then you should also take the easy DE that's available (unless if it's not worth it <100).
- If you are in need of trophies and TH cannot be sniped, then at least 1000 DE must be accessible and possible for you to raid to make it worth raiding and possibly lose trophies.
- Never be afraid to lose trophies. If I can obtain at least 1000 DE with my simple army comp, then I'll be happy to trade a few trophies for the DE.
- You don't always need a full army camp. If your army camp is 75% full, then you should not waste time searching for Town Halls to snipe and good DE to steal from collectors. I can hold up to 220 troops in my camp, so if my camp is 75% full (165 troops), then I will search for DE and THs to snipe while my Barracks are cooking a full army. 220-165 = 55, which will take about 4 mins to fill. So while I'm nexting and can't find anything, I can just come back to home base wit a bigger army, then go back to nexting again. Some people are against this method simply because they don't believe it's worth searching without a full army. What if I run into an inactive base with a boatload of loot? Well think about it logically. You wouldn't have ran into it if you weren't searching at that precise time anyway. The more you search, the greater the rate of finding good bases to raid. I know there are many times I regret not having a full army camp, but I move on.
- Never randomly spawn your troops around without thought. Always have a reason for spawning before you spawn. You have 3 whole minutes to raid. Try using a minute to think and plan out your attack in your head. Also conserve your troops, know how many are necessary to obtain the DE. If you can get all the DE with just 50 Barbs and 50 Archers, then don't go wasting all of them. Time is the most crucial aspect of farming efficiently. This means you'll have to wait less to fill up your army camp for the next big raid.
- My main focus is DE per hour. I'm not going to wait 15 mins for a full army and then 5 mins of searching for a good base to raid. I'm always going to be busy, busy searching. The above two methods will help keep you busy and maximize your DE per hour.
- Be aware of Clan Castle and 2x2 empty tiles (possible indication of Giant Bombs and Teslas). Be sure to always try luring Clan Castle first, if it's lure-able. If it's unlure-able, then you can either avoid raiding or weigh your risk vs reward. Be sure to test out for Giant Bombs outside the base with a few Barbarians before spawning a horde of troops.
- Go for easy Gold/Elixir collector raids that you can also 1 star. You will find yourself nexting a lot, to a point where you will be losing a lot of gold. This means you should also farm for gold (for nexting) and elixir (for your spells) if you find an easy collector raid-able base with at least 300k+ total resource. If you fall under 300,000 gold, then you need to prioritize farming for gold over DE until you have at least 800,000 gold. This always works for me as I've never fell into a point where I've run out of enough gold or elixir to search for DE or create Lightning Spells.
- Avoid heavily guarded DE storage. If the DE storage is confined within more than 2 layers of walls and surrounded by high level splash defense, then I usually do not pursue raiding it. A simple army of Barch isn't enough to 'safely' break into the core of a good TH 9+ base with centralized DE storage. Again, you must weigh risk vs reward when attempting a raid into the core.
- BE CONFIDENT. When attempting to raid, be at least 90% confident that you can get the DE you want before attempting to use up all your troops. It's better to just skip the base if you're uncertain, then to risk losing your army and time.
- Watch my YouTube video series to get some great ideas on how to effectively raid and farm Dark Elixir.
5. Tips For Town Hall 7's Farming DE http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...Town_Hall7.png
This is where most people begin farming Dark Elixir for the first time. As a Town Hall 7 player, your priority should be on getting your Barbarian King and getting him to Lv 5 as soon as possible because that's when you actually realize how great he is with his Iron Fist ability and how beneficial he is in every big raid you do. Farming at Town Hall 7 is hard given that most of the Dark Elixir are higher up in the leagues and as a TH 7 player you're limited to how well you can attack bases with a simple composition of say Barch or BAM. You also want to conserve Dark Elixir, so I wouldn't recommend using Minions in TH 7 to farm DE just because DE is very rare there and you're not going to be attacking many centralized storage bases. Possibly the easiest method to getting DE as a TH 7 is to just use you Lightning Spells to zap DE storages that are loaded and raid DE drills that are outside of bases. Try an army composition will allow you to attack the cores of many TH 7 and 8 bases to get to the DE storage. I would recommend using about 8 Giants, 6 Wall Breakers, 3 Barracks training Archers, and 1 Barrack training Barbarians or Goblins. I also recommend farming above 1500+ trophies for this. If you're having a hard time maintaining your trophies, then I recommend sniping Town Halls that are outside bases for free trophies. I used this method when I was TH 7 and was able to get my King from Lv 1 to 5 in less than a week!
6. Thought Processes When Approaching a Base
- Is the DE storage in range of the CC? If so, is the CC lure-able? If it's not lure-able, then can I still break into the base, lure it, and at the same time take the DE?
- What are all the defenses guarding the DE storage? (since my only goal is the DE storage, I don't have to worry about defenses that aren't within the range of DE storage)
- How many walls must I break before to get into position for my Archers or Barbarians to take the DE? Or what level are the walls? If the walls are of high level, are there also splash defense (Mortar/Wiz Tower) within this range? (Barbarians need to break through the walls fast if there are splash defenses within range, so it's often wise to avoid high level walls (lv 8+) with splash defenses on the outer edges of the base)
- Where are the splash defenses placed? Can I remove or distract the splash defenses in my way?
- Is the storage possibly guarded by Teslas or Giant Bombs? (2x2 tile radius)
- What is the best direction for me to attack from? (the best path is usually the shortest path, and the path that allows you avoid/distract/remove splash defense quickly)
- Are there Heros guarding the DE storage around the core of the base? (you should avoid Heroes around the storage and around more than 1 layer of wall because the Heroes have a magnetic ability to pull distract all your troops if they target you, which will allow other defenses (especially splash defense) to quickly wipe your troops. Especially the Archer Queen, she has the ability to not only attack you over walls, but also make your Barbarians and Archers attack the walls in front of her instead of her).
- Are there Inferno Towers guarding the DE storage inside the base? If so, is it a multi-targeting Inferno Tower or a single-targeting? (If it's a multi-targeting tower in range of the DE storage inside the base, then you should completely avoid it. Be sure to know how to identify whether it's single-targeting or multi-targeting)
- How powerful are the defenses? (If the DE storage is well-protected by high level splash defenses such as Lv 7+ Mortar and Lv 6+ Wiz Towers, then you should probably avoid it, unless if you can distract it)
- Is the Xbow set to ground only or ground + air?
You will learn most of this from experience. Keep practicing, practice makes perfect!
7. Estimating Dark Elixir inside Storage and Drills
http://i.imgur.com/NkkxspI.png
| Town Hall Level |
% Available to be Stolen |
Cap |
Storage Amount to Reach Cap |
|---|
| 7-8 |
6% |
2,000 |
33,333 |
| 9 |
5% |
2,500 |
50,000 |
| 10 |
4% |
3,000 |
75,000 |
If you're a Town Hall 9 for example and you have 50,000 DE in your storage, then the most someone can steal from your storage is 2,500. While if you have 200,000 DE instead, then the most someone can steal from you is still 2,500 because the cap is 50,000. 50,000*0.05 = 2,500.
The Dark Elixir drills hold their DE inside of a small transparent cubic container on top. To accurately estimate the amount of DE inside this tiny container, make sure you zoom in wall the way:
http://i.imgur.com/P7bnhtY.png
This particular drill looks empty, but it actually may have a little DE stored in it. It has around 0 to 19% DE available. But still really isn't worth pursuing.
http://i.imgur.com/3S4kdCp.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/DMc2JxO.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/UsGXDHi.png
Dark Elixir Storage and Drill DE Availability Chart:
(Credit to Sanguin for making this amazing chart!)
http://i.imgur.com/BGsSzSm.jpg
(Click Picture for Full Image)
